Jin will become the VP of Technology at Baidu which makes it likely that he will be responsible for managing R&D for the company’s core search engine technologies. He has previously worked at Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL), Alibaba.com Limited (HKG: 1688), eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) and, of course, Google.

“Online payment will continue to play an ever-growing and significant role in the development of e-commerce as well as the stimulation of consumer demand…Consumers expect a safe, convenient and affordable globalised payment platform. That’s what we have offered since the creation of Alipay and with this investment we aim to continue playing a fundamental role in the ongoing development of e-commerce in China and around the world.”
–Lucy Peng, CEO of Alipay and Chief People Office (CPO) of Alibaba Group

The first version of Sobar with translation services will allow users on English websites to get real-time translation of English words — “including the phonetic symbols, pronunciations, and detailed explanations” — by highlighting them with the cursor. A representative from Baidu Sobar indicated that this new release is the first in a line of future versions that will offer increasingly user-friendly translation functionality into its browser toolbar.

Without rehashing the long and torturous history of AOL, Inc. (NYSE: AOL) (nee America Online and, at one time, AOL-Time Warner) the latest news coming from the recently spun-off company is that it’s trying to put its house in order. That means shuttering businesses that are a drain on resources and selling off others that can provide greater value to other specialty players.

As reported recently, this house cleaning has most notably led to plans to shut down Bebo, an $850 million acquisition made by Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) for AOL in March 2008. In just under two years this infamous attempt to help AOL make inroads into the social networking market has lost around 68% of its membership — Bebo had 40 million members at the time of acquisition but now has only 12.8 million. Most industry observers have recognized that Bebo was a mistake and a money pit for AOL and last week the company finally agreed that it could no longer fund the business unit and will either sell (unlikely) or shut it down.

“Bebo, unfortunately, is a business that has been declining and, as a result, would require significant investment in order to compete in the competitive social networking space…AOL is not in a position at this time to further fund and support Bebo in pursuing a turnaround in social networking.”
– Jon Brod, EVP for AOL Ventures (via internal email)

While there has been no reports of any companies vying to take Bebo off of AOL’s hands there was additional reporting that AOL also plans to sell off its instant messenger business, ICQ. Unlike Bebo, ICQ occupies a more reputable place in AOL history although its value to the company appears to be outweighed by its value to several global digital media companies. According to the story, there are three leading competitors in the running:

NHN Corporation (KSE: 035420), parent company of leading Korean search portal Naver and leading gaming site Hangames, is purchasing Japanese portal LiveDoor to boost its presence in the Japanese market. NHN has previously stated it wants to grab a 10% share in Japan, and speculation around the acquisition has been swirling. NHN dominates the Korean market and clearly needs to look abroad for growth.

The LiveDoor purchase price of $68 million is to be preceded by a $32 million (3 billion yen) special dividend prior to completion of the sale, draining cash from the company to its principal investors, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Why the dividend instead of simply a higher purchase price? Someone clearly prefers it that way for either tax reasons or to make sure the money goes into very specific pockets.

Details of the LiveDoor saga in Japan are rich enough to fill several books, but Time magazine’s profile here is an excellent summary. (thanks to PaidContent for the link.)